Eight things the Liberals will try to downplay about Justin Trudeau now that he's leader

Justin Trudeau's eight things the Liberals will try to downplay

COMMENT

Unsurprisingly, this week the federal Conservatives greeted the new dawn of a Justin Trudeau-led Liberal Party with an attack ad. Even more unsurprisingly, the ad’s copywriters chose to highlight the leader’s youth and inexperience, choosing the slogan “he’s in way over his head.” Justin Trudeau wooed Liberals with his rugged good looks, ’60s-era optimism and off-the-cuff charm. But now that he is the standard-bearer for the Party of Laurier, it will be time for the Papineau MP to settle down, do up the top button on his shirt and convince Canadians that he is a sober, sage alternative to Stephen Harper, a teetotaling economist who writes hockey history books in his spare time. Thus, in the next two years, here are Mr. Trudeau’s more gregarious traits his handlers will desperately be trying to dissuade, according to the Post’s Tristin Hopper:

1. Tattoos
Winston Churchill had a tattoo, but it was a simple anchor graphic on his arm; pretty standard decoration for a former First Lord of the Admiralty. Mr. Trudeau spent some time in B.C. once, so he got a massive Haida raven covering his shoulder. Another famed political offspring, Caroline Kennedy, is able to credit her embarrassing butterfly tattoo to the unruliness of youth, but Mr. Trudeau got his ink just two years ago, to ring in his 40th birthday.

2. Boxing tournaments
In hindsight, it was a good idea for Mr. Trudeau to sign up for an event in which he repeatedly punched Tory senator Patrick Brazeau in the face. A few Twitter rampages and a sex assault charge later, the opponent Mr. Trudeau defeated in a 2012 charity bout is now one of the least liked men in Ottawa. Nevertheless, boxing takes time (Mr. Brazeau lost after training for five whole months), potentially robbing the new Liberal leader of valuable study hours in the parliamentary library.

3. Cussing
In late 2011, it was a question on climate change policy that caused Mr. Trudeau to leap to his feet and call Environment Minister Peter Kent “a piece of s—.” Canadian parliamentarians are known to occasionally let loose with a PG-friendly putdown like “sleazebag,” but everybody knows that s-words and f-words should remain the exclusive domain of Manitoba New Democrat Pat Martin.

4. Moustaches
Every November, politicians get a free pass to wear all manner of ridiculous facial hair, provided they do it under the guise of fundraising for prostate cancer research. In 2011, however, Mr. Trudeau kept his sinister-looking D’Artagnan moustache (complete with goatee) well into the next year. Robert Borden, the last man to successfully sneak a moustache into the Prime Minister’s office, died in 1937.

5. Playing hooky
To date, Mr. Trudeau’s one, solitary, piece of private member’s business was a swiftly defeated motion calling for a “National Policy on Youth Volunteer Service.” And, between the 2011 election and last February, he had the fourth worst attendance record in the House of Common; missing 221 of 616 votes. Running a campaign is hard work, but the last Liberal leader to abrogate parliamentary duty for stump speeches and Chamber of Commerce luncheons was a little-known academic by the name of Michael Ignatieff.

6. Wacky French-language media appearances
As any bilingual Canadian knows, French TV and radio gets way more outrageous than even the most envelope-pushing episode of Vinyl Cafe. The same goes for its interviewees, apparently. In 2010, Mr. Trudeau told Télé-Québec that ‘‘Canada isn’t doing well right now because it’s Albertans who control our community and socio-democratic agenda.” Two years later, he told Radio-Canada that if “Canada was really the Canada of Stephen Harper … maybe I would think about wanting to make Quebec a country.”

7. Slick threads
In a House of Commons jammed with navy-blue and un-ironic tweed, Mr. Trudeau was never afraid to mix it up by popping the top two buttons of his dress shirt or strutting around in jeans. And, for a 2010 Christmas card, he famously bedecked his entire family in coyote fur. The elder Trudeau got away with wearing wide-brimmed hats, plaid pants and a cape — all topped off with a red rose — but the 1970s were a very special time.

8. Stripteases
To complement their newest attack ad, the Tories chose an unauthorized video of Mr. Trudeau stripping down to his undershirt as part of a mock striptease performed at a 2011 fundraiser for the Canadian Liver Foundation. Until Canadians take a page from their Russian neighbours and demand a national leader willing to strip off his shirt at the slightest provocation, it’s likely among the last times Canada will get a good look at Mr. Trudeau’s well-sculpted upper body.